Published March 1st 2004 by HMH Books for Young Readers (first published October 1st 1998)

ISBN: 0152050779 (ISBN13: 9780152050771)

I was browsing the shelves when I found this book. Usually, an author sticks with the big events of the American Revolution, but Rinaldi sets this book in the south. Caroline, the main character, is 14 years old and sees how the war has separated her family's loyalty, as well as how it has affected her friends. The British have taken over her family's plantation; her father is thrown in jail for supporting the patriots; the brother is fighting for the British. She sees some horrors on both sides and learns some secrets about herself as well. At some points, the reading is a little dry. Overall, a good book, though, YA readers who like historical fiction.

Cast In Shadows is my first book by Laura Landon, but won't be my last. Ms Landon has delivered a well-written book. The characters are amazing. I totally love these characters. This historical romance has plenty of mystery, suspense, drama, action and sizzle to keep readers entertained from cover to cover. I enjoyed reading Cast In Shadows and look forward to reading more from this new (to me) author very soon. Cast In Shadows is book 1 of the Cast In Scandal Series but can be read as a standalone. This is a complete book, not a cliff-hanger.

I voluntarily read a free copy of this book that I received from BookFunnel.

Miroc has been saved from drought but the underlying questions remain – where are the gods? Where did they go and why did they abandon the world and their children within?

The city also is still under threat- Ash, Syed, Iris – everyone is desperately preparing as much as they can for when the Shadows return; the nearly undetectable creatures who can possess people and are trying to bring about the end of the world.

But even this can be displaced when the Jansynians discover something impossible – and need Ash’s magic to try and decipher. The revelations there could shake everything they know about their society.

Ok, frustration moment in a sea of awesome… why did we go here?

No, seriously, I loved the world revealed to us in the first book. I loved that book. I still love that book. That book is awesome. The world is awesome. I love the idea of the 13 gods, an entire society built not just on the belief of those gods, but the tangible existence of those gods, their powers and their blessings. This is a society where praying for rain was literally a sensible form of irrigation. And then those gods disappear – causing both the horrifying impact of the complete devastation of having the entire world’s faith, their entire foundation of belief, identity and how things are be completely ripped from them. A life and reality that they not only believed, but had objective evidence that that belief is correct. On top of that the basic foundations of that society – the fuel and glue that makes their civilisation possible, has similarly being ripped away

This is an amazing world. This is perfect. I could spend 100 books (psst, Barbara, write! Write more!) reading this world. Especially since we have so much more because this excellent, amazing world has been delivered so sparingly – only the information we need to know to advance the plot. We have an awesome amount of information – but nothing excessive. Which means we have a vast amount of the world left to explore. I don’t even know the names of most of the 13 gods, let alone their roles or the creatures they sired. The hints we’ve seen point to these races not just being random humans that look different – but they have their own cultures, viewpoints, purposes that are crafted to be very different from human sensibilities. There’s some excellent world building there

So show me this – now this buried city and ancient past and mighty magic… it’s just nearly all very very very separate from the world that has already been revealed. But can’t we focus on what is here first? I want to see the gods and magic and trying to keep Miroc from imploding to seeing these different deity creatures. This story is excellent and I love it – but I’d love it more at book 5. Let’s revel in the world before shaking it down to its very foundations again, let’s see this world and what people believe before we decide to shake those assumptions.

Let me play in this aw

esome before running to different awesome. I haven’t finished this awesome, it’s not time for the next course of awesome. I know this from the awesome we see – just the expanded ideal of the shifters, the edict to keep changing and what it means to be a shifter who doesn’t change alone is such a deep and layered addition.

While we have a number of supernatural creatures with all kinds of beings (oh, aside, even these differing creatures have separate opinions and factions rather than being one unified faction which I really like. It is so common to have non-human beings be just one monolith. I appreciate that even as, ironically, the story, unlike so many others, actually makes an attempt to explain why they would be monoliths since ever species but the humans were designed to be avatars of their god’s purpose and values. On top of that I really love the whole exploration of what it means to humanity to be The First. How this leads to their – including Ash’s – arrogance their assumption of being right or being more important because they were first and not created expressly for purpose) we also have racial diversity. So many fantasy worlds have huge diversity of creatures while humans are very limited in their depiction – like we can only have so much variety so humans have to become homogenous.

Cast in Shadows - Laura Landon
Laura Landon sometimes gives me this impression that she likes goody two shoes as her lead characters. And this book has not one but 2 goody two shoes. Gideon and Eve are both good people who you can't help but like.

This is a romance story with a mystery. I guessed who the real murderer was very early on. But that did not bother me. Gideon was supposed to be mad. He suffered from seizures and violent fits and was considered a danger to people around him. When he met Eve he had been locked away for his and others' safety for 10 years. Eve was the daughter of Gideon's doctor. She initially only wanted to help Gideon but they fell in love once they got to know each other.

As usual, I immediately took to Laura Landon's characters. I love her heroines. They are every bit of femininity and grace that I aspire to be. Her heros are sometimes not "bad ass" enough. Not that I am pining for an asshole but some of her heros are so honorable that they border on being kind of bland. Gideon, was rather bland. But well, he was a good man, what can I say?

One of my favorite books is Laura Landon's masterpiece and I love love love that book to pieces. But all of her other books are pleasant easy reads at best. Her stories are often too simple to invoke emotional responses, but they are almost always a good time-pass. This is book is another pleasant easy read from Landon which I read quickly and will probably not re-read. But I am glad that I read it.

Shadows Cast by Stars was a brilliant young adult book. Knutsson’s writing was captivating; you could tell her original story came from her heart. I believed it was going to be my favorite book until I got to the final quarter of the book. The world building and feelings were going along so great and then the story took an unexpected turn.

In the beginning, Knutsson paints a setting that is mixed with Native American myths and the currently bad atmosphere of the main character Cassandra’s future world. Cassandra, her twin brother, and their father are what is known as “others”, they live in the outlying part of The Corridor. “Other” blood is a commodity and there are “searchers” constantly hunting them. So far, her family has been quietly living “the old way” with no running water and minimal Corridor influence. Then, suddenly, they are warned that the searchers are coming and the only refuge for “others” is an island filled with what is left of old Native tribes.

Knutsson does a wonderful job of detailing what it is like to be an “other” in a society, as well as being persecuted for being different. I believe Shadows Cast by Stars is a story that is told from the author’s hopefulness of her own world and what it means to live as a unique human being. It was so easy to fall in love with the setting, it made me feel like I was a young teenager again and wondering what it means to be an outsider to my own ancestral roots. This character connection will always be a reminder to what it was like in my head when I was young.

With that said, the story took a turn for the... boring. It went a completely different route than what I was expecting. Instead of following the journey of Cassandra’s life, the story was led literally into the spirit world. I found that part boring and a little overwhelming. So much storytelling in a story itself was just not my thing.

While there were Native aspects of life and apocalyptic-type problems, the romance was okay. It just felt forced. With so many things touched upon by Knutsson in the Native world, from alcoholism, to storytelling, and shunning; I felt that the "romance" and creepy/abusive characters were issues should have been resolved by the main character, it made me a little angry.

With such a beautiful story, I felt that some of the characters could have been left out, among other things... Unless she plans on making it into a series. Then, I would be all over that. Maybe the ending would be okay, and the characters I didn't like could be built upon in the future. I don’t know if this will ever happen because it seems like Knutsson wanted this story told this way.

I do still love this book, even with its flawed ending, and intend to buy it to have one of the pretty covers on my shelf one day. Either one is gorgeous.

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